Decades of work by a series of researchers has led to a groundbreaking drug, innovative patents, and the launch of a new startup. The antibiotic, LPC-233, is a synthetic molecule effective against gram-negative bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella. It works by disrupting their outer membrane lipid synthesis. Demonstrating remarkable efficacy in animal tests, it showed potential to combat resistant urinary tract infections and exhibited low resistance mutation rates.
Co-authors at the University of Lille in France tested it against a collection of 285 bacterial strains, including some that were highly resistant to commercial antibiotics, and it killed them all.
And it works fast. “LPC-233 can reduce bacterial viability by 100,000-fold within four hours,” Zhou said.
Co-authors at the University of Lille in France tested it against a collection of 285 bacterial strains, including some that were highly resistant to commercial antibiotics, and it killed them all. And it works fast. “LPC-233 can reduce bacterial viability by 100,000-fold within four hours,” Zhou said.
The compound is also tenacious enough to survive all the way to the urinary tract after oral administration, which may make it a vital tool against stubborn urinary tract infections (UTIs).